Paintball games have been played for over twenty-five years. In these games, paintballs are shot out of specially designed guns using compressed air, nitrogen or CO2 gases. Typically, players on opposing teams attempt to shoot the other team's members. When a paintball strikes an opponent, the paintball shatters and releases the fill material or paint onto the player, leaving a mark and disqualifying the marked player from continuing the game.
There are two basic types of paintballs on the market. A first such type of paintball may have been comprised of PEG in an amount of over 90% by weight. Some of the advantages associated with the use of such prior art PEG fill materials in paintballs may have included the following: (a) they are substantially stable; (b) they are hydrophilic; (c) they have relatively little tendency to become rancid, and/or (d) they are a substantially non-irritant to the skin, etc. On the other hand, disadvantages may also have been associated with this type of paintball. For example, such prior art PEG-based paintballs may have been subject to significant interactions which may have occurred between the PEG-based fill material and the paintball shell. These interactions may have resulted, for example, in substantially brittle paintballs, which may have been subject, inter alia, to an increased risk of shattering whilst being fired from a paintball gun. Many significant storage and/or handling problems may also have been associated with this prior art PEG-based type of paintball—a factor which may also have created a tendency to require high levels of care in handling paintballs filled with such prior art formulations.
Another disadvantage associated with such prior art PEG-based types of paintballs may have been the high and/or increasing cost associated with manufacturing such paintballs—a disadvantage which may have been due, in part, to their fill material's high content of PEG. PEG may be a relatively expensive chemical substance, and/or it may be a chemical substance that is likely to become (even) more expensive in the coming months and/or years. Accordingly, there may be a need for a paintball fill material that contains minimal and/or reduced amounts of PEG.
A second basic type of paintball that may heretofore have been on the market is one which may have been comprised of oil in an amount of about 90-95% by weight. Though oil may be a relatively inexpensive material (in comparison to PEG), one of the disadvantages associated with the use of oil-based fill formulas in paintballs may have been a lack of water solubility. This factor may heretofore have presented a problem for paintball enthusiasts insofar as the paint residue may not have been readily cleaned from objects and/or clothing, unless the formulas also contained, for example, relatively high levels of surfactants.
The prior art has thus far failed to provide a cost effective and commercially viable system for creating paintballs that adequately addresses the aforementioned problems.
Therefore, there exists a need for improved technology relating to paintball fill formulas. In particular, there may be a need (i) to provide a paintball fill material that affords some of the desirable attributes of prior art PEG-based fill formulae, (ii) to provide a paintball fill material that avoids and/or mitigates some of the disadvantages which may heretofore have been associated, and/or which may in the future be associated with, prior art PEG-based fill formulae (e.g., to provide paintballs at lower cost, with reduced fill/shell interactions, that are less brittle, and/or which may be handled or stored more readily), and/or (iii) to provide a paintball fill material that has an improved washability in comparison to prior art oil-based fill formulae.
It is an object of this invention to obviate and/or mitigate one or more of the disadvantages associated with prior art paintballs, fill materials, and/or methods of making same.